Bridgeport didn't take any Urban Renewal money. It was entirely private funding.

I am hardly a fan of Bridgeport because it doesn't suit my style (I don't drive a $60,000 car, I have to work during the day and it's impossible to find a parking space in the evening, and frankly I hate paying full price for grossly overrated brands from snobby salespersons I can buy in Woodburn much, much cheaper minus the attitude)...but at least the developers bought land from the county, took formerly tax-exempt property and put it back on the property tax rolls, developed it, paid for it (without using public funding) and successfully developed a brownfield without handouts.

So...in that sense, Bridgeport is a shining success of what so many other projects (namely, the Pearl District and South Waterfront) should be.

That said...my wife forced me to go to Bridgeport a week or two ago (we walked in all of one store - Borders - but we had to park on the top deck of the parking garage on the opposite side of the center), and frankly it was pretty busy, lots of cars, lots of people, no boarded up storefronts. And I bought a few items off of Border's clearance racks, total of less than $10.

ODOT just finished a major project near there to fix Highway 213 as it skirts the eastern edge of the old landfill. Every ten years or so they have to go in and flatten the road out again because the swamp beneath it keeps settling. It's the third time in just short of 30 years that they've had to go in and do this. Eventually the Home Depot that's located on the site will start sinking into the swamp too. There's no telling how long the mall would last. What a dumb idea.

Wouldn't it be cheaper for them to buy the old Oregon City mall, blow it up and put their thing right there? Of course this isn't about cheap.

Whatever is done there another stupid city council should not be playing big shot developer with taxpayer money.

They suck at at and never face any consequences for their lousy decisions.
They just have their bureaucrats spin out BS to sustain themselves and whatever agenda they push.

That's what Urban Renewal has become and it's fraud through and through.

Telling the public their "plan" generates the money is among many blatant falsehoods used to perpetuate this scheme making. The money they play with ALWAYS comes from skimming from surrounding property taxes over decades. ALL of which then has to be replaced in order to fund the rising costs of basic services.

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 155
At this date last year: 241
Total run in 2015: 271
In 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269